KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) – Afghanistan has fallen so far from Americans’ consciousness that some may have forgotten it’s called the forgotten war.
It also is America’s longest war. Now in its 16th year and showing little sign of ending, it will soon be the responsibility of Donald Trump, two presidents removed from the October 2001 invasion.
During the presidential campaign, neither Trump nor Democrat Hillary Clinton offered new ideas for breaking the battlefield stalemate. They hardly mentioned the country, let alone a strategy.
And yet, the war that began as America’s response to 9/11 grinds on as nearly 10,000 U.S. troops train and advise the Afghan army and police, hopeful that at some point the Afghans can stand on their own against the Taliban – or better, that peace talks will end the insurgency.
A look at the war Trump inherits from President Barack Obama, what U.S. troops are doing and why the outlook is so clouded.